Hanoi cuisines (p2) b. Cooking without fire Fresh vegetables are an essential part of a meal of Hanoian – Illustration photo - Brining: Ingredients (mostly fruits and vegetables) are brined to be eaten raw as an accompaniment to grilled or fried foods or sour soups. Although this way of preparing food is quite simple, correct procedures should be followed carefully: fruits or vegetables should be washed well in clean water before being soaked in weak salt water. Often brined for eating raw are vegetables and herbs such as lettuce, coriander, fennel, marjoram and perilla, and fruits like cucumbers, unripe bananas and unripe star-fruits. - Preparing “gỏi”: Gỏi refers to a dish made of raw fish or shrimp and vegetables. The preparation of gỏi requires meticulous care. Fish or shrimp for gỏi should be fresh. Fish should be gutted and all ingredients should be washed clean, then wiped dry, and, finally, mixed with thính (ground and roasted glutinous rice). Gỏi is often eaten with fermented distiller’s grains cooked with cleaned fish guts and minced small fish. Gỏi is also served with aromatic vegetables. The most important of these are apricot leaves which help people digest more easily and may prevent digestive diseases. - Preparing “xổi” and “dầm”: To make these dishes, people usually use vegetables and fruits such as cabbages, kohlrabi, carrots and unripe papaya. Ingredients are sliced thinly, sprinkled with salt and kneaded until they become soft. They are then placed in sugar, vinegar, chili, spices and other herbs for 30 to 45 minutes before serving with fried or grilled meat. - Preparing “chua”: Ingredients for these dishes are usually fermented to have a sour taste. The most popular dish is pickles. Pickles are made from vegetables such as cabbage, colza or kohlrabi which are coated with salt and sugar to ferment naturally. To have delicious pickles that last for a long time, take a whole colza or kohlrabi, sprinkle salt or pour an appropriate salty water over the entire surface then use something heavy, like a large rock or terra-cotta compressor, to squash it. Egg-plant prepared in this way is usually eaten with crab soup and basella alba in summer, while pickled cabbage, colza and salted kohlrabi are used with braised fish and meat in winter. c. Combination of cooking over fire with cooking without fire - Preparing underdone meat: The most common meats cooked this way are beef, buffalo or goat (leg or rump). The meat is either cooked over a fire quickly (singed) or dropped in boiling water for a moment (scalded). It’s then sliced thinly and kneaded with lemon juice. Underdone meat is usually served with soy sauce and sliced ginger. - Preparing “nộm”: This salad dish is usually called by the names of the main ingredient: papaya salad, kohlrabi salad, banana flower salad. Ingredients are sliced as thin as thread, then kneaded with salt or scalded in boiling water until soft, then mixed with spices: vinegar or lemon for sour taste; sugar for sweet taste; dried sesame and peanut for buttery and greasy taste. Immediately before serving, supplementary spices such as boiled sliced pork skin, boiled sliced pork side and other herbs such as coriander or basil are mixed into the nộm.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:05:19 +0000
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